Monday, December 31, 2012

We went in the Limited and I bought some stuff. We went to Westfield Valley Fair Mall. It is not the closest one but it is a nice mall so that's why we chose that one. It's also packed though and about impossible to find a parking spot.

I bought 3 new sweaters and 2 new pairs of pants. Did you get any good deals recently?

The dress pants are 4L. I used to wear a 0L from there. I have skirts that are 0 and 2 but haven't worn them since I worked. They were on final clearance for 19.99. Online they are called brown but I thought they were more of a tan. The material seems like it's slightly stiff so I'm worried they will need to be ironed. But since I'm pretty sure none of my other dress pants will fit anymore, I got them.

3-way stretch fabric with subtle heathered texture

Wide waistband with seaming detail and double belt loops

Triple hook-and-bar with inner button and zip fly

Angled front pockets, back buttoned besom pockets

Inseam: S = 30", R = 33", L = 35"

Stretch Rayon Blend

Machine wash. For best results dry clean.

Import

The green skinny jeans are a 4. They were 24.99 on final sale. Online it says they are forest green. The original price was $74.90

As seen in Vogue, InStyle & Glamour

Vibrantly colored stretch denim

Contoured waist for no-gap fit

5-pocket styling

Ankle length

30" Inseam

Cotton Spandex Blend

Machine wash.

Import

The sweaters were all similar. The striped ones were 29.99 and the solid was 24.99. Originally the stripes were $49.90 and solids $39.90. Online the one is labeled as blue and the other red. Blue I understand but the other striped one I haven't figured out what all those shades are. On the blue one I swear one of the stripes is green just like my pants but the picture online doesn't seem to look like it. I like these sweaters because you can even put them in the dryer. The blue striped is an XS. The other one is bigger and is a S but I liked it so much I figured I could go with a size larger.

Soft, lightweight merino blend

Deep V-neck looks great layered over a cami (sold separately)

3/4 length sleeves

Ribbed trim

Comes in 3 color combinations

Merino Acrylic Blend

Machine wash, gentle cycle.

Import

Note in the write-up it says 3/4 sleeves. I don't believe that is the case.

After trying on the sweaters, I liked them so much, I went back over to find more in XS. I only found 1 so that's why I bought the bright teal one.

As seen in Vogue & InStyle

Smooth, lightweight pullover knit of our premium merino blend yarn

Deep V-neck

Finished with wide ribbed cuffs and hem

Merino Acrylic Blend

Machine wash, gentle cycle.

Import

It baffles me that the long sleeve sweaters look the same but the write-ups are different. After further examination they are both 50% Merino Wool and 50% Acrylic but the neckline is different. They are both V-necks but the solid has a wider band. The sweaters are very thin but I thought that might be nice for around here. I also thought they'd be good for layering. My purple sweater is thin and I like it.

I took pictures from the dressing room to show Dave but the mall was too crowded so things were too slow so by the time the first picture sent, I was already in line.

Poly was even checking out my new clothes

The line was so long; It was crazy. Only one of the three registers was working. The person two in front of me had a huge return and it was taking forever. I was in line a good 20 minutes for just 3 people. I was seriously debating just putting back my stuff and leaving.

I woke up and entered clothes data in my database. At 1:30 PM I decided it was time for breakfast and made Pancakes. Then we headed to Whole Foods to buy ingredients for dinner. We were going to make Lasagna. Well we went to Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Safeway. We got home after 5pm and started cooking. We watched Breaking Bad.. We had a late dinner. We watched Breaking Bad until at little after 10. Dave wouldn't watch any more TV. I was a bit tired and knew if I went to my computer I'd get a second wind and end up staying up until 3am. I played Solitaire and Donut Popping until I fell asleep. I think it was around 10:30. Dave was up until almost 1 coding some stuff for my website.

While shopping at Sprouts, I took some pictures of some prices. Some because they were low and some because they are higher than before. At Whole Foods, Dave was taller than everyone by about a foot at the lunch meat counter. Also it was his turn to order and he had to stand feet back because nobody moves out of the way.

This is what I looked like carrying groceries upstairs. This is mostly what I look like all the time but I never get a chance to force Dave into taking a picture of me. I could barely fit out the elevator door. (Dave was also carrying bags but I took an extra one from him so he could have a hand to use my camera.) Poly liked sleeping on/in these bags later.

Some of our lasagna process. It was really good. I was a little surprised because of our lack of actual recipe.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Unlike any other year I was not making cookies on Christmas Eve Eve. I wasn't doing anything Christmas related. I woke up at 10am. Well Dave woke me up at 9:58 with warnings of the Steeler game starting at 10. We watched the game. The Steelers are bums.

Then I worked on my computer enter outfits into my new database. (I'll share the link later when it's more user friendly.)

We went to the gym. I did a hard workout but a short run. On our way to the gym, I thought the view down the one sidewalk was pretty nice. The trees were pretty. While on the treadmill, I took notes on my phone. Usually I hand write my notes or I send myself an email. This is the first time I typed it. It's too hard to type close to 8 mph so I think I'll take my notebook next time. I had Dave try to take a few pictures of me running at the end of the workout but my old camera took over a minute to attempt to focus to get the picture taken. That's one time I wish my Red Cannon (newer one) didn't break. I have a fancy camera but sometimes I don't want to lug that around. My training plan isn't going so well. I skipped a week and am still really behind. I decided instead of just skipping the runs I didn't get to, I will just try to get as many in as I can and do the long run from week 2 before another long run. We'll see how that works out.

Then I ate more lasagna for dinner. We watched Breaking bad until 10:15 then I headed back into the office to enter more data and blog.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Recently I have been entering all my clothes and accessories into a database. I had over 200 items already in an excel file with dates and prices. I had more on my blog with details. The rest I took educated guesses based on my memory and when I first wore it. I remembered pretty good so I also trusted my price memory. Granted if I was going by memory, I rounded to the nearest $5 and also I chose the first of the month instead of guessing somewhere in the middle.

I made this table of the 15 most expensive things I have entered so far. I have 562 articles entered so far and I'm going backwards and double checking. I'm all the way back to August 2009. There will be more articles to add as I go along but this is how it is right now. If you notice out of the 15 most expensive things all but 2 are a type of shoe. I'm not sure why I entered Boots separate than shoes but I did. My athletic shoes clutter up this page too which is why I picked the top 15 not top 10.

Since footwear hogged up the top 15 list, I made a list of the most expensive things based on the type. I don't know if this shows that I don't buy expensive things or if it shows anything. A few notes, the earrings were full price and then I got Lia Sophia jewelry at half price and the earrings were the cheapest thing so then they are what was full price. I have multiple pairs of tights that were $10. I had a few bracelets that were $10 also. I only entered a few purses in. I only entered what I had on receipts, in my excel file, or in a daily picture but most daily pictures don't include a purse. I bought that pair of sunglasses when I moved to California and before that my most expensive pair was $10. I did find a pair when I moved that when I looked them up it seemed like they cost $200 but I have not entered those. If I got something as a gift, I entered it as $0.

How would you imagine your pricing being? Do you spend more on shoes like I do? Do you keep track of your purchases?

Thursday, December 27, 2012

I had Dave take some pictures of me at Bay Trail today. Granted he was busy playing Starcraft so we went entirely too late. But here are some comparison pictures between today and August 14. I tried to pick some with the most similar background.

The mountains are in focus a lot better in August. I don't think the harsh sun helped. You can even see Dave's shadow in the one from today. Both days the pictures were taken very close to sunset.

The mountains are a lot greener.... aka green compared to in August but it's hard to tell in the photos. What do you think of how the mountains changed?

I ran once with my long sleeve shirt on then ran the same little stretch again with just my tank top. I specifically didn't wear my pink tank top since I seem to wear it for every running photo shoot.

We didn't take any leg muscle closeups so I have no comparison there but I am a lot fatter now so I probably wouldn't have any visible muscle. I found very similar pictures of me from behind and you almost can't tell that I'm 17 lbs heavier with a lot less muscle and a lot more fat.

Dave took about 80 but almost all of them are unusable. They are so bright or blurry. I put an example below of how bright they are. That's even a better one of the bad ones.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

I really like this outfit. I like how the vest and long sleeve Tee seem to work perfectly or at least I felt like they did. I also like how these jeans looks. It looks like I photoshopped the pictures to get the jeans the color they are but nope that is how they are. I've only worn the vest twice before. It was cheap ($8.65) but I still need to get more use out of it.

I woke up to Poly sleeping on a pillow on the bed. She was so cute. She stayed that way the entire time I got ready. I got dressed to go running right away. I ended up going at 11:30 but that wasn't too bad compared to normal. It wasn't really cold enough for pants but since I needed to shave my legs, I figured I'd wear pants. It was 49 degrees so it could have been pants weather.

I didn't eat lunch until 3pm. I also took 45 minutes to eat it. I spent too much time IMing with my mom and entering data. I brought in all my Express Jeans so I could label them differently. I realized I have 8 pairs of Express Jeans. I got them all off the hangers and put them on my lap to go through them and Poly jumped right up on my lap. She stayed there for awhile. I couldn't even swivel under my desk because the jeans were stacked too high. I found this nice gem on a pair of pants. I remember doing this and blogging about it but I can't seem to find the post or the original picture. I take too many pictures to find stuff like that. I know I came across it in the past few days too.

$169 or $179 depending if you count the purse. That's pretty good considering the boots were 100.

We watched football. The Steelers sure make me mad. All the clothes are what Dave got at the mall on Saturday.

We went to Boudin's for lunch. I was disappointed. They don't have pizza at this one. I wrote out cards. I had to make more cards. I ended up spending about 3 hours making 15 cards. I pick a poor layout. Gluing those strips down was time consuming. I didn't think it would be bad because there wasn't coloring. I was wrong. I finished my cards (except for the ones I am missing addresses on but I decided to just not do those.)Dave and I walked to Target and I took his picture after he took mine :) He's in one of his new shirts.
BTW here are a few more pictures of Poly on blankets. She loves them.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

I basically sat at my computer all day. Poly kept me entertained. She likes the warmth of the cable box. At one point she was under the foot stool under Dave's desk. I figured she needed an afghan and as soon as I put it on the floor for her she came right out and then went to sleep on it. Dave sent me a picture of how nice he looked at work wearing his new shirt.

My chicken tender from Popeye's looked like a dinosaur. Dave and I watched TV and Poly hung out between us.

Monday, December 24, 2012

After staying up until 5am, I was surprised I woke up when my alarm went off at 10. I immediately got up and started working on my clothes database site.

My stomach was really growling and I looked at the clock and it was 2 pm. I ended up making a hot pocket because I wanted to be able to continue to work at the computer.

Close to 5pm I started to get a headache. I realized that was probably because I didn't drink a single thing all day.

At 6pm, I stopped working on my website to give my head and eyes a rest. I cleaned the kitchen a little and went right back to my computer. My break didn't last long.

Dave got home and brought Wendy's. We ate and watched Rachel. After that we both went to our computers. Dave coded for about 3 hours and went to sleep. I kept adding data until about 2 am then I started blogging a little so I didn't get behind or more behind.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Wednesday: I went for an easy 2 mile run. Well I ran the same loop I ran last week (2.33 miles) but this time I wanted an extra couple tenths so I ran past my apartment door a tad and ran back.

Thursday and Friday: I'm pretty sure I did nothing. (Now most people can claim they are busy doing holiday things and getting ready but I'm not doing that.)

Saturday: I didn't exercise but I did shop at 3 different grocery stores and that took a few hours.

Sunday: I went to the gym with Dave. I ran 2 miles on the treadmill then did abs. I was going to workout more and lift weights for arms but Dave was tuckered so we cut it short. Plus I was exhausted from the tough treadmill run. I needed my inhaler when I got back.

I started out running at 6.6 mph and each minute I increased it by .2 until I got to 8.2 then I went back down. (Well really I kept increasing until I hit 1 mile then I finished that minute and went back down.) It was a really tough workout for me. Once I hit 7.8 mph and I had to keep going up. Then on the way down the recovery was hard so even 7.4 felt fast. I have done this same workout before but I was in much better shape. After I was done with abs I realized I brought my camera and didn't have Dave take my picture. He took 2 and I ran an additional .05. My red broken camera was way better at taking pictures of someone running. This one sucked.

Total Mileage: 4.4 miTotal other things: 1 core routine, a few walks

Summary: So ever since I started "training" my mileage has drastically gone down. I suck.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

I took my picture in my running clothes (after working out). I thought I might not get dressed after my shower and I was right. It was pretty cold so I thought the long sleeve shirt with "seriously" was appropriate. Granted back for that race it was because of snow but around here having to wear gloves to run isn't fun. We get too spoiled.

I ate leftovers. I used my computer a lot. I didn't play any games on my iPad though.

So Poly really loves afghans. She waits until you spread out the afghan for her to sleep on. She's so cute. Do your pets like afghans or blankets? Do they like something a lot that surprises you? Poly also loves canvas bags.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

I accidentally stayed in bed until 4:30 PM. I was awake by 9AM so it wasn't that I slept in a lot. I was busy playing games on my iPad. I got up at one point because Dave texted me and wanted me to get on IM. When I got my computer I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth.

I got out of bed in time to cook dinner. Grilled pineapple is good. The chicken was good and Dave and I both wished we had more but that was all we bought. I spent 90 minutes cooking. Then ate. Then watched TV. I was in bed at 11 but playing games on my iPad again.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

I woke up around 8. Poly crawled up on my chest so I played solitaire on my iPad. After a little I decided to play a game Dave got for me ages ago. I played Plants vs. Zombies. Poly got up and came back a few times. Before I knew it, it was 2:30 PM. Ooops. I never even got up to go to the bathroom.

Since I was in bed so long, I decided I better be productive. I cleaned up a little. I did some laundry. I applied for jobs. Close to 5 Dave told me he was on his way home so I cooked tuna noodle casserole.

I actually entered all the ingredients into my BodyMedia fit to create a food so it will have the proper nutrition when I enter it in the future. That's the first time I entered a meal on there. I've only entered store bought things like Cookie Butter.

Dave and I watched The Office, Rachel Maddow, Grey's Anatomy, and 2 episodes of Person of Interest. He went to sleep and I went and applied to more jobs.

Around 12:30 I went into bed. I was going to play Solitaire on my iPad but Dave cuddled with me so I put my iPad on my nightstand. I guess he found a way to get me to actually go to sleep.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Shirt: F21, Blazer: NY&Co, Necklace: Lia Sophia, Jeans: F21 (they suck and the pant leg seam always rotates a full 90 degrees after just a few steps), Boots: DSW (b.o.c), Purse: JCP (Details on the clothes. You can click on the articles and see when I bought them and such) I wanted to switch purses but Dave told me I didn't have time before we left. He also loves purple and red together. The purse looks brighter here than in person.

We had a lengthy to-do list but didn't end up getting out of bed until 10am.

We went to recycling. Later we realized we forgot to take all of the newspaper. At least we got rid of all the cans and bottles. We had 4 boxes of that stuff.

We went to Chick Fil A because Dave read Jen's blog post and it made him want a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake. The line was out the door. That place has been open for months and it is still packed.

Next we went to Southland Mall to hit up JCP to find a jacket for Dave and to buy a vacuum belt from Sears. The JCP didn't have any jackets in the big and tall section. There were racks and racks of normal people size jackets. Next we decided to go to another mall. We went to one we hadn't been to before. We had to pay $5 to cross the bridge to get there. How sad. We went to the Shops at Tanforan. That JCP was a lot better but still had a poor selection of coats. They had a lot more of everything else so Dave got a few shirts. (Dave just tried things on over his shirt just out there in the shopping area. Another guy was doing the same thing. I guess that's quicker than going into the fitting room plus all the rooms in there were taken anyway the one time Dave tried to go in.) I kept taking his picture as he tried things on. He didn't seem to appreciate it.

I even found a pair of skinny jeans. I could have possibly found 2 if the Levi's ones weren't the style with holes. But at least now I know the size and style.

We spent so much time shopping that on the way home we stopped at Whole Foods. We were going to buy chicken to cook but decided to just buy precooked turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy. I had green beans at home.

We watched TV and ate. Then we watched Groundhog Day. Then Dave put on a chick flick, The Rebound. Almost the entire time I was working on my new clothes database. I was entering clothes. It was more challenging than I thought because even though I had an excel file with some clothes purchases, I didn't fill out the size on that file. I was running to my closet a lot to check sizes. I was also doing research to figure out when I bought certain things because not everything was in my excel file. I was pretty good at figuring things out. I'd also go through my calendar site figuring out the first time I wore something. That helped a lot. Dave warned me that this database is not backed up now. This worries me because in the past I started databases of where I bought certain things and I've lost it 3 times for 3 separate reasons. Dave and I ended up staying up past 1am. I haven't even been staying up that late but Dave really hasn't.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Monday: I ran 2.33 miles. I set out to run 2 miles but my 2 mile loop is actually a tad over. I almost did 3 but knew it'd be too dark by that time. It was pretty good timing too.

Originally I thought I'd run at 9:30 pace but then changed it. I wanted to go a bit slower since I haven't run in awhile and my thigh was bothering me last week.

I got faster each mile. It felt easier as I was running too. I think I was just too rusty from taking over a week off from running. I notice that when I get close to my apartment on my way home, I tend to speed it up. I used to do the same thing at North Park when I was running. Or I guess anywhere that I ran fairly often as soon as I was close to done I'd always pick up the pace.

Tuesday and Wednesday: Rest (I was a lazy bum.) Wednesday I didn't even get out of bed until 4:30 besides around 2 when Dave texts me and tells me to get on chat so I had to get up and get my laptop. I went to the bathroom at that point and got back in bed with my laptop. I wasn't sick or anything. I was just busy playing games on my iPad.

Thursday: I set out to run another 2 miles since Friday and Sunday I'd be running with Hilary and doing my long run and speed work for the week. I did the same exact course as Monday but with a different goal in mind.

I tried to run the last .33 the fastest and that would have put me at an 8:24 pace so it was my fastest. I guess sometimes my goals actually do pay off.

My goal was 9:20 pace but really each of my .25 splits I did not want slower than 2:20 and I actually made it every split. I'm pretty proud of that. Usually I hit the overall pace but then have a split here or that there is 5 seconds too slow.

I wore long sleeves but ended up pushing up my sleeves.

I also took 2 different walks to go to different grocery stores.

Friday: I went running with Hilary. We were debating our long run or speedwork. It was extra cold but we looked at the forecast and it was supposed to rain too. We didn't want to get stuck miles from the car in 40 degree rain so we went with speed workout. We were both scared of it. Neither of us has been running any sort of distance. I haven't done a speed workout in months and Hilary never did. We decided to go with 3 half mile repeats with a recovery quarter mile in between. Then add on a mile warmup and cooldown.

We slowed down our first mile a lot from how we normally run but it was still faster than I wanted. I wanted slower than a 10 minute pace. We were really booking it the first 800 but since we hadn't run fast in so long, I thought by the end of the half mile we'd have slowed down and then hit our goal. We beat it by so much that we were so dead for the rest of the workout. Or at least I was dead. I was definitely dead after the second repeat. I was really trying to slow the recovery jog so I could maybe possibly handle the last repeat. If it weren't for the bridge where I swear we lost distance than what we actually ran, I'd say we got worse each time based on the data. In reality both the second and third repeats had the weird switch backs to bridges so I'd say we met our goal on those just based on feel and the data I was seeing on the watch up to that point.

We went to 2.1 instead of 2.0 to turnaround so we didn't have to transition from run to jog on the bridge we hate. So then we ran a little over 4 and had a longer cooldown. I don't mind the extra tenths here and there. They all help my miles add up for the year.

My training plan suggested mile repeats at 8:36 pace. I don't think I could handle that. My guess is I would have hit the first one but been too slow on the second one. Week 6 is my next mile repeat at 8:29 pace. I don't think I can do that but we shall see.Scrap and Run
I figured I got weak so I wore pants, tank top, long sleeve shirt, and gloves. A couple miles in, I took off the gloves. Then later I pushed up my sleeves. Three miles in, I took off my long sleeve shirt and just ran in the tank top. I was going to wear capris and I could have gotten away with them but the pants weren't all bad. Plus I have 5 pairs of workout pants that I love that don't get any use around here.

My legs felt tired near the end of the run and after the run. I hadn't run straight through that far in a long time. I did 5.16 on October 21 but still walked .5 of that and we started walking 3.75 into it. So the official last time I ran 4 continuous miles was September 7 and interestingly enough I ran mile repeats that day. I can't believe it's been that long. Wow. I'm a big slacker.

A couple hours after the run, I did a 22 minute weight routine. It was far too cold in the gym so I only did 1 set of a few things and got out of there. My hands were frozen. The thermostat said 51 degrees.

Saturday: I didn't workout. My plantar fasciitis is really acting up. My arches are so swollen. Every step hurts. I did shop for about 3 hours so I guess all that walking around was exercise.

Sunday: Dave and I walked to Target, shopped, and walked back. I walked to Safeway. Dave and I walked to dinner. I guess all that walking was exercise.

Summary: My repeat of Week 2 couldn't have been worse than the first week so I could only improve. It turned out a lot better than I expected. I probably should register for the race. I would have done better than projected if I did my long run. It was so cold and my plantar fasciitis is so bad that I thought it was better to take Sunday off than to run and then have my feet hurt even longer. Even just sitting here my feet hurt.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Scarf: NY&Co, Purse: JCP ($10 right when they first stopped having sales but this was on clearance), Shirt and Jeans: F21, Shoes: Famous Footwear (Connie)

I used my iPad a bit in bed. I was going to work on Christmas cards but instead I worked on making 1 picasa/google+ album with some key pictures from California. That took many hours. It didn't help that Poly was on my arm so I only had one arm to try to ctrl click or shift click. That's tricky to do 1 handed. I did it knowing people'd ask about it at Christmas and 1 album is easier than 100 albums. Also each of the 100 albums has 50+ pictures that nobody cares about. They would get bored after one day. Right now there are 164 pictures and it goes from our visit in April until the first week of December. Almost all pictures have a caption of some sort. What do you think of the pictures?

I went out to dinner with Dave. We ended up going to In N Out. We watched TV after we got home.